New figures present the variety of small boat arrivals to the UK in 2024 was up 25% on the earlier yr. Whereas public consideration stays on how folks get to the UK, much less mentioned is what occurs to them as soon as they arrive and are later granted refugee standing. The fact is that many have gotten homeless.
The results of this are in plain sight, as an example in Manchester, the place council workplaces have been surrounded by tents erected by refugees for months. Some tents had been initially erected as a protest in opposition to the council’s lack of ability to offer tough sleepers with housing.
Lots of the folks dwelling in tents in Manchester are from nations resembling Sudan and Eritrea. Latest studies have additionally documented a pointy improve in tough sleeping amongst newly recognised refugees.
Need extra politics protection from educational specialists? Each week, we carry you knowledgeable evaluation of developments in authorities and reality examine the claims being made.
Join our weekly politics publication, delivered each Friday.
When an individual is granted refugee standing, which may take a number of months to over a yr, they’re given a time restrict, often known as the “move-on interval”, to transition out of asylum lodging supplied by the House Workplace and discover their very own housing. Till final month, this era was 28 days – the present authorities has briefly prolonged it.
Anybody accustomed to Britain’s housing and welfare methods understands that securing social housing or accessing common credit score inside 28 days is sort of inconceivable.
Mockingly, authorities efforts to enhance the asylum course of have contributed to the rising homelessness. One issue is the asylum backlog – some 137,000 purposes that had not been determined as of early 2022, leaving folks in limbo.
The backlog of unresolved circumstances positioned important strain on asylum lodging. Many candidates had been housed in unsuitable and neglectful situations, resembling on boats just like the Bibby Stockholm and in former military barracks.
To deal with the backlog, the previous Conservative authorities employed further caseworkers and adjusted the way in which the move-on interval was calculated. This sped up decision-making, however left some refugees with solely seven days to search out long-term lodging.
The present authorities has now reversed this determination, in addition to confirming that the move-on interval has – a minimum of briefly – been doubled to 56 days.
Asylum claims for candidates from particular conflict-affected nations, resembling Sudan, had been additionally expedited. A considerable variety of claims had been accepted in a brief interval. However as extra folks got a call faster and evicted from accommodations, the variety of folks needing housing assist from councils elevated.
In response to a report by the Unbiased, 2023-24 noticed a 251% improve from the yr earlier than within the variety of folks turning into homeless after leaving asylum lodging.
The housing wrestle
The House Workplace accommodates asylum seekers throughout the nation to stop undue pressure on particular person councils. As soon as they’re granted refugee standing, they’re shortly moved on from this lodging. New refugees who do not need household to stick with should navigate Britain’s advanced social housing system, or the personal rented sector.
As a consequence of housing shortages in lots of native authorities, the place they’re eligible for social housing is probably not the place they’d been accommodated and constructing their assist networks.
Clare Louise Jackson/Shutterstock
Social housing operates on inflexible eligibility standards that prioritise probably the most susceptible candidates. Refugees — disproportionately single, younger males — typically wrestle to satisfy these. And native connection guidelines require refugees to use for social housing within the areas the place councils have accepted duty for them.
Many refugees discover their “official” native connection is tied to areas they’ve by no means set foot in. Consequently, they’re confronted with an inconceivable selection: uproot their lives to maneuver someplace they don’t have any actual connections, or danger turning into ineligible for housing within the place they name house.
Learn extra:
‘While you get standing the wrestle doesn’t finish’: what it is prefer to be a brand new refugee within the UK
Altering the coverage
Granting somebody refugee standing is an official recognition that they’re in want of safety. However the state is failing to offer this safety via its present insurance policies.
The tents rising in Manchester and elsewhere within the UK are a stark indicator of the failure of the move-on coverage and the structural limitations stopping refugees from gaining stability.
Preliminary indicators recommend that the Labour authorities is taking steps in direction of reform with its 56-day move-on pilot (the time interval beneficial by the Refugee Council). It is a welcome change, however the authorities might want to guarantee it’s coordinated with localised social housing shortages and ready lists.
Newly recognised refugees want assist to navigate housing and welfare methods, entry translation and decoding providers, and safe employment or schooling alternatives.
The present system units refugees as much as fail, undermining the federal government’s goals of integration and social cohesion. With out pressing reform — resembling completely extending the move-on interval, growing the supply of social housing and offering sufficient funding to native councils — the disaster will solely deepen.
